The Netanyahu corruption cases explained

3 March 2018 — 12:16pm

Jerusalem: Israeli police questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for five hours on Friday over what news reports said was his possible role in a far-reaching bribery scandal allegedly involving the granting of regulatory benefits worth millions of dollars to Israeli telecom giant Bezeq.

It is the first time that Netanyahu has been investigated in connection with this case, which is said to involve a quid pro quo arrangement of positive news coverage for the Netanyahu family on the popular Walla news website, owned by Bezeq's majority shareholder, Shaul Elovitch.

The questioning came shortly before Netanyahu was scheduled to depart for the United States, where he is expected to visit US President Donald Trump on Monday.

This is the third, and possibly most serious, corruption case so far involving Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister.

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He is involved in the case because he was also serving as communications minister at the time the benefits were said to have been granted to Elovitch. Police said that Netanyahu's wife, Sara, was also questioned in the case.

Sara Netanyahu was expected to give a statement about her ties with Shaul Elovitch's wife, Iris, and the messages that she is suspected of having relayed to her about Bezeq and coverage of the Netanyahus on the Walla website, Israel radio reported.

A statement issued on behalf of the Prime Minister said that none of this ever took place and that this was a continuation of "tendentious" and "false" leaks against Sara Netanyahu that are aimed at undermining the PM and his government.

Elovitch, his wife and son, and Netanyahu's former media adviser Nir Hefetz have all spent time in jail over the last week for their alleged role in the affair, which police refer to as Case 4000. The investigation into the case was ramped up in recent weeks, when Shlomo Filber, the ministry's former director-general turned state witness.

Under official protocol, the interview with the Prime Minister took place at his residence in Jerusalem, while Sara Netanyahu's interview occurred at the police investigation headquarters.

Two weeks ago, the police submitted recommendations that Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted in connection with two other cases, also relating to bribes, fraud and breach of trust. It is now up to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit to decide whether to indict Netanyahu in those cases, dubbed Case 1000 and Case 2000.

According to the police recommendation, Case 1000 involves gifts of cigars and jewelry that the couple are suspected of receiving from billionaire benefactors such as Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian business executive James Packer.

Case 2000, said police, involved deals made between Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, publisher of the popular Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. According to information leaked to the Israeli media, the agreement apparently would have allowed the Prime Minister to receive more favourable coverage from the newspaper if he agreed to weaken the status of rival daily newspaper Israel Hayom, owned by US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

In Case 3000, which may be even more explosive, several members of Netanyahu's inner circle have been named as suspects, questioned or arrested in what is said to be a corrupt multibillion-dollar submarine deal with Germany. So far, Netanyahu has not been directly linked to that case.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in all the cases and said that the police recommendations will not amount to anything.

Despite the allegations surrounding Netanyahu, his political position appears as strong as ever, and members of his right-wing coalition say they have no intention of dismantling the government unless the attorney general decides to pursue an indictment against him.

In a radio interview on Friday, Knesset member Yaakov Margi, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said the coalition should be preserved at all costs. It is a sentiment echoed throughout the government.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, a member of the ultra-nationalist party Jewish Home, said that according to the law, Netanyahu can stay in the job through the end of his trial. But, she said, coalition members are likely to reconsider their current positions based on the decisions of the attorney general.